First, let us start off by telling you a little about what we mean by holistic approach.

A Holistic Marketing Approach is a strategy that focuses on the business and results as a whole – rather than each isolated area. It is designed as a true Marketing mix of channels. We evaluate it on a higher level by looking at a broader set of metrics and results.

What are the benefits or downfalls when a company doesn’t look at marketing holistically?

We see, time and time again, that instead of focusing on growth – the marketing channels and budgets get more restrictive and results become limited.

Here’s an example:

Most of the time, marketers are reaching for results as optimized as possible. The CEO is telling them they need to get better results with the marketing dollars they have. We hyper-focus on the last interaction before a sale (also known as end of funnel activities). Over time, that lower funnel will dry up if we are not actively engaging at each point. Eventually, that steady flow of buyers will be restricted to a drip of sales.

What makes a difference when people look at marketing holistically?

Marketers and companies that understand the value of a holistic Approach tend to drive more people through different micro-moments and points of the decision funnel. Ultimately, they have more opportunities for sales.

So, we are really talking about two things that make an approach holistic:

How we integrate our marketing mix with different channels and attribution models. We are reaching people at different points of their decision cycle and measuring success on each.

How we measure top level results by looking at a broader set of metrics such as overall growth and profitability.

Combined, these two aspects of understanding and measurement allow us to invest wisely with our marketing budget.

Why we believe this is the approach marketers should take.

One of the reasons we believe this is true is because you can deliver a more consistent marketing message across interactions with the end user. We also believe that a higher level of effectiveness can be achieved through driving more brand awareness and intent in customer purchases as you engage them throughout the process. Consumers are becoming less brand loyal, engaging more, and purchasing from brands that are actively available with information throughout their decision cycle.

How can you accurately measure effectiveness?

We like to keep it simple.

We measure growth overall in terms of customers retained by breaking down: attribution modeling to see where some of the most valuable interactions are taking place, growth in revenue at a brand level, and understanding of profitability. Many times we can identify how much in revenue was left on the table. We can’t think of many CEO’s who wouldn’t pay attention if we calculated that they left $5M in revenue on the table last year.

With the help of our Google team, these are the kinds of exciting conversations we can have with marketers. As they understand more about the holistic approach to marketing, we can help them drive more aggressive growth.

Pepper Gang has a wealth of information on our website blog. If your business is looking for more information, head to our blog, or contact us today.